Ford Motor Company operates several proving grounds worldwide, for development and validation testing of new vehicles.

For Ford/Mazda Proving Grounds in Japan see Mazda Proving Grounds

Latitude and Longitude: 33°42′23.02″N 112°30′23.75″W / 33.7063944°N 112.5065972°W / 33.7063944; -112.5065972

The Arizona Proving Ground opened in 1985. The Proving Ground consists of 1,498 acres (6.06 km²) located less than one hour northwest of the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport at an elevation of 1,650 feet (500 m). The facility was originally a Volvo facility (VAPG) but was transitioned to the Ford branding in the summer of 2009 and renamed the Arizona Proving Ground (APG).

The Arizona Proving Ground is operated year round. The climate is of a desert type with low annual rainfall and low relative humidity. Daytime temperatures are high throughout the summer months. The winters are mild. Nighttime temperatures frequently drop below freezing during the three coldest months, but the afternoons are usually sunny and warm.

A proving ground is the US name for a military installation or reservation where weapons or other military technology are experimented or tested or where military tactics are tested. The usual British term is training area.

While these types of facilities are usually military or government establishments, some civilian industries have their own proving grounds for testing prototypes and new technologies.

In the United States, there are several military facilities that are designated as Proving Grounds.

Sam Whittingham is a Canadian cyclist who has held several world records on recumbent bicycles.

As of 2009^[update], he holds the following world records under the sanction of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association:

In 1993 he also held the record for the 200 m flying start (multiple rider).

Sam Whittingham is founder, designer and builder for Naked Bicycles, a custom bicycle and accessory fabrication company based on Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada. The company was originally named Forte bicycles before a name change in April 2006.

Whittingham won the President's Award, the People's Choice Award and the Best of Show Award at the 2008 North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland, Oregon with an ornate fixed-gear bicycle that blended 1890s-style wooden rims and grips with modern hubs and a front disk brake. This bike then sold to seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

Sam Whittingham is the grandson of screenwriter Jack Whittingham, who wrote the first James Bond screenplay.

Kris Peeters (18 May 1962) is a Flemish politician and member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party who is currently Minister-President of Flanders, the northern region of Belgium.

Peeters served from 1991 to 1994 as Director of the NCMV research department. In 1994 he became Secretary-General of NCMV and when NCMV was reformed into the SME interest group UNIZO in 1999, he became its first managing director. In 2004, although not having been a candidate for public office at the 2004 regional elections, Peeters was asked to become a member of the Flemish Government. He resigned his position with UNIZO and became Flemish Minister for Public Works, Energy, the Environment and Nature.

During the 2006 municipal elections, Peeters ran for public office the first time in his career and was elected a member of the city council of his home town Puurs. In the 2007 Belgian general elections, Peeters was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives but chose not to take his seat, instead he succeeded Yves Leterme as Minister-President of Flanders, as Leterme headed the CD&V coalition talks for a new Belgian government. Peeters also gave up his former competences to Hilde Crevits and took on the responsibilities for Institutional Affairs, Agriculture and Sea Fisheries, formerly belonging to Leterme, while keeping his own competence regarding Ports. He has been serving a second term as head of the Flemish government since the regional elections of 7 June 2009, with the additional competences of Institutional Affairs, Economy, Agriculture and Sea Fisheries.